They are manufacturers who try to confuse buyer about macro lens. In the good old days macro mean taking closeup photos of actual size or bigger. You need lens designed for sharp pictures at close range.
Here is my picture of dragonfly using MicroNikkor60mm. If you do not use special macro lens it will usually not possible to get sharp pictures at close range. If your lens focal length is too long you will not get enough depth of field.
As for auto-focus for macro, I used to have a 50mm Pentax macro lens with manual focus. Using this MicroNikkor with auto focus is very convenient indeed. I shall never go back to macro lenses without auto focus again.
http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/...hp/photo/80393